Belmont Park
John D. Spreckels conceived the idea for the Mission Beach Amusement Center and engaged architects Lincoln Rogers and F. W. Stevenson to draw up a comprehensive plan. Spreckels built the Amusement Center at a cost of about 2 1/2 million dollars to stimulate real estate sales and attract passengers to the street car. After John Spreckels’ death in 1926, the family company donated the Amusement Center to the City of San Diego by way of the State Park Commission; the City was given full title in 1939. The name was changed to Belmont Park in 1954 when the City negotiated a twenty-year lease with Jack Ray. Like so many aging beach side amusement zones, it limped along throughout the 60s and 70s, closing in late 1976. Commercial redevelopment in the late 1980s led to development a new, smaller amusement park with the restored Giant Dipper as its centerpiece.
San Diego, San Diego County
Photographer: John Bare